Please see the pictures. Single small hole in the drywall. The debris is from one day. Is this a termite exit hole? We live in Sacramento – Central California. I can't find any other signs. The rest of the drywall is clean.
We had some bathroom work done about 5 months ago, which included opening an exterior wall. There was some water damage to an exterior wall, but no obvious termite damage. The bathroom door is about 4 feet away. This is an interior hallway wall.
Best Answer
I've dealt with several carpenter ant nests in houses. One thing I've found very useful is to have a good shopvac handy when opening the wall, either form the inside or the outside, to vacuum up the ants and eggs.
Also, you mentioned water damage. Carpenter ants use rotted wood for their tunneling, never dry solid wood. Termites - I'm not an expert but my reading says they prefer solid wood because they digest the cellulose fibers in the wood and rotted wood those fibers are not so much there. So I'm leaning towards thinking you have carpenter ants. I live in Michigan, FWIW.
If you do have carpenter ants, vacuuming most of them up, spraying ant spray as far into the wall cavity as you can go, and replacing the rotted wood and fixing the cause of rotted wood will almost certainly fix your problem. These steps have worked for me.